Tascosa seniors Anna Weirck and Merritt Vaughn will literally be running off to college.

Weirck and Vaughn signed cross country and track letters-of-intent Thursday before family and friends at Tascosa Activity Center.

Weirck will take her skills to Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., a Division I school and a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.

Vaughn will stick closer to home. He signed with Division II West Texas A&M.

Tascosa cross country coach Sean Hargrove praised the pair of runners “for going above and beyond” and said he appreciated their commitment to training runs.

“It’s been a pleasure to coach them,” he said.

Weirck will graduate ranked No. 2 in her class of 429 with a grade average more than 100. The District 2-5A 800-meter champion and regional qualifier said she will run cross country at Creighton.

“I’m really excited about this opportunity,” Weirck said. “It’s going to be a big change from Texas. Creighton is definitely a school I wanted to go to in the first place. It’s a small Catholic school with a great environment and the perfect size for me. Running is an added bonus.”

Weirck said Creighton only offers cross country but has plans to add track in the next two years.

“A chance to continue running means a lot to me,” Weirck said. “I really like the competitiveness of it.”

Vaughn was part of Tascosa’s first state-qualifying boys cross country team. He also was a regional qualifier in the 800 meters.

Vaughn said he was impressed with West Texas A&M third-year coach Darren Flowers and his plans mapped out for his college career.

“One of the big things for me was what kind of training do they do,” Vaughn said. “That’s going to determine how much better you are going to get in college. I talked to a lot of schools, and I thought Coach Flowers was really smart and really economic with his runners. He had a good head on his shoulders as far as running goes, and that was a big deal for me.”

Vaughn started out his high school career in basketball and football. He used running to get into shape for other sports.

“There were people a lot better than me when I started out running, and I just wanted to beat them,” he said. “I started running more and more and just fell in love with it.”

Vaughn said he plans to start out running the 800 and 1500 as a freshman and then “go longer distances.

“I know I will have some great teammates down there at West Texas, and I think we will have a chance to win nationals,” he said.